By Natalia Bełdyga, Doktorantė I PhD Candidate at Kaunas University of Technology
Challenges and Lessons Learned in Civil Preparedness: A Case Study of Polish Border Communities Response to Crisis and UncertaintyPresentation at the 9th SRA-E Nordic annual conference Nordics, Baltics and the Arctic in Transition Uncertainties and Opportunities for Risk Analysis
Author: Natalia Bełdyga
Abstract:
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has disrupted European security architecture (Makarychev&Diez,
2023) and has become a catalyst for strategic realignments regarding national defense readiness, especially in Nordic
and Baltic regions, which for many years have followed diverse approaches to security policies, from NATO membership
to military neutrality. A renewed threat, posed by an ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, along with intensifying Russia’s
imperialists aggression, has caused concerns and uncertainties over regional stability and security. This unprecedented
event has also triggered a discussion about the urgent need for strengthening civil preparedness, specifically in the Baltic states which regained independence from Soviet Union in 1991, and now again face heightened risks due to geographic proximity to Russia.
Since civil preparedness, a proactive part of crisis management cycle, is as crucial as resilience in responding to and minimizing the outcome of crisis (Añasco et al., 2021), this study aims to identify and provide practical insights about challenges and lessons learned in civil preparedness by studying civilian and institutional responses to crises and uncertainty in Polish border region communities affected by humanitarian and refugee crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine
in 2022. While set in a specific geographical context - Poland, a country which experienced the biggest intake of refugees from Ukraine (Komenda Główna Straży Granicznej, 2024), those findings may be potentially relevant to the Baltic and Nordic regions, particularly those closest to emerging security threats such as geographical proximity to risk and conflict zones, shared vulnerabilities and complex cross-border dynamics, which reaffirm the urgent need for strengthening civil preparedness. By deconstruing local responses to crisis and uncertainty, this study contributes to a broader understanding of how local experiences and insights about civil preparedness may inform and advance regional and national crisis management strategies to cope with future contingencies and uncertainties.
Bio:
Natalia Bełdyga is a Doctor of
Science in the science field Sociology, an Assistant Professor as well as a
Project Researcher at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities at
Kaunas University of Technology in Kaunas, Lithuania.
Her research focuses on community
resilience, risk perception, civil preparedness, and the management of
humanitarian and crisis situations.
In addition to her academic work,
Natalia Bełdyga serves as a board member of the Polish Sociological Association
and of its Warsaw chapter, contributing to the wider sociological community,
sociological scholarship and collaboration.